July Recap and I Can't Believe It's August!

As we all face that shining black hole that leads us to our ultimate end, one must ask one's self what is this all about?  Cyclists, especially racing cyclists have to ask ourselves that leading question nearly every day when we face the early morning hours of training, the late afternoon into the dark evening hours training; cold, wind, rain, heat, and snow, and often lack of understanding or worse, the disapproval of nearly all of our relatives and loved ones.  Really, why do we do this?  The expense is leading us down to insolvency, and the hours on the bike come between those who claim to love us; yet we do it anyway.  I often ask other racers why do we do this?  I rarely get a coherent answer.  I'm not sure it can be easily put into words.  Is it important?   Bike racing isn't something one "dabbles" in.  One can't dabble in bike racing.  It requires such a high level of fitness that defies the more modest demands of softball, golf, or bowling; well, it can't be imagined unless one actually engages in this endeavor.  Meaningless?  Of course, once can argue that existence itself is meaningless, but that's where existentialism comes into play.  One must make meaning of one's own existence, and if meaning comes through the exercise of racing a bicycle, then meaning comes following closely behind.   If you're reading this you must have at least some interest in bicycle racing.  If you partake in it, or have at one time, I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts.

The summer is winding down and I'll be back to work running the computer systems again and tucking in my training around work hours in little more than a couple of weeks.  I'm heading to Colorado at the end of this week to both visit my daughter and ride the Rist Canyon Road Race, which is this years UCI qualifier for the World Masters Championships in Liege.  It's a 66.7 mile road race with 6100' feet of climbing, including a nine plus mile climb which tops out just shy of 8000'.  I know a few of the guys riding this race, so it should be fun.  I'll be out there over a week visiting and pre-riding the course.  Then I'm back at it on the 24th, work, that is.  But that Friday the 26th I'll head up to Big Pine for another go at the Death Valley Road Stage Race, which will feature the same two stages as the one held last May (minus the horrendous wind, I hope!).  That will leave me with yet a few short weeks until the last race of the season, all things being equal, the Everest Challenge.

July was a tough month for me.  I only had one race, in which I had my worst showing all year (8th).  I was tired and approaching burn out from hard training, and the heat kicked in here in Las Vegas (it's been remarkably cooler this summer than usual) and with the monsoon moisture my chronic saddle sores reacted unfavorably to the new climatic conditions between my saddle and my nether regions.  I decided to cut back to three hard days a week interspersed with ridiculously easy days last week and this week, and it's paid off.  I'm feeling more rested now, and set a personal best on the Mt. Charleston loop I ride for long climbing practice.  It's a 54.2 mile loop with just over 6000' of climbing over an 18.5 mile climb.  It's a great ride.  This time, however, it was hot (upper 80s at the start to 100 degrees at the finish), and quite windy.  I still took over a minute off my previous best time, and I wasn't riding it with the intent of setting a best, I just wanted to get up and over the mountain.  So I'm taking that as a good sign.

Here're the stats:
Number of golf balls retrieved: 9
Number of coyotes seen waiting at a cross walk for traffic to clear: 3  (they crossed one at a time and those who were across waited for the remaining coyotes to join them, and then off they went into the golf course to play with the bunnies)
Number of miles ridden: 1327 (2150 km)
Number of miles ridden as of 7/31/11 8610 (13,948 km)
Lifetime miles as of 7/31/11 427,559 (692,646 km)